What's Left
by KyraKayden
Summary: When you've been betrayed, lost everything you ever had, what's left? The Story of Paladin Roxanna Cole and her journey through the Wasteland. Rated M for strong sexual content, gore and violence, and drug use.
1. Chapter 1

Boston, Massachusetts

11/7/2287

"Shit, shit sh-"

The wind howls past as Roxanna flails, tossing and tumbling through the air struggling to right herself. The alarms in her helmet blare and the heads up display flickers with red warning lights, above her the Prydwen sat motionless.

She manages to right herself just in time for the ground to rush towards her and everything goes dark with a loud thud, a cloud of sand settling around her.

Roxanna wakes slowly to the warbling alarm of a rapidly depleting fusion core. She winces when she feels the medical pump in her chest plate jab her with a fresh dose from her supply of Stimpaks. Focusing on the faceplate, all she could see was black.

"Shit." She mutters, painfully.

Her armor shudders suddenly. She looks around her heads up display in confusion as it shudders again, the blank faceplate begins to fall away to light as dirt spills off of her.

"Wh—whoa!" Her eyes focus just in time to watch the legs of a Super Mutant flex as he lifts her off of the ground.

Scrambling for the .44 Magnum magnetically clipped to her thigh plate, she brushes the grip before the Mutant bellows and throws her several feet. She lands in the sand with a thud, spinning and skidding to a stop on her stomach.

Her helmet warbles another alarm, the now depleted core ejects with a pop and the armor goes dark. Sliding her hand free of her glove, she triggers the release as the armor hisses and opens.

The Mutant growls at her, swinging its hammer in a devastating downward angle. Rolling free of her armor, she snatches the .44 from her thigh as the hammer bashes the inside of the armor's chest plate.

Rolling onto one knee, Roxanna snaps back the hammer and levels the revolver. The round ejects with a crack of thunder, striking the Mutant in the neck, it howls as it swings blindly in her direction.

Ducking the swing, she rolls between its legs to her feet, leaping onto its back she wraps one arm around its neck and one of her legs around the inside of its thigh, kicking out one of its powerful knees with the other.

Roxanna gasps as the massive Super Mutant falls on top of her in the sand, forcing the air from her lungs. The Mutant flails for her arm, locked tightly around its throat, growling and spitting.

She jams the barrel of the revolver in its mouth and pulls the trigger.

The bullet explodes out of the top of the Mutant's head, narrowly missing her own face, spraying her with brain and blood. It goes limp on top of her and she lays there for a moment, panting.

Grunting, Roxanna slowly worms her way through the sand out from under the hulking dead weight of the Super Mutant, getting to her feet and brushing the sand from her jumpsuit.

Brushing the dark, blood soaked hair from her cheeks, she looks up at the Prydwen hanging motionless above her. The waves lap against the shore as she stares down at the holotags in her hand.

Paladin Roxanna Cole

Serial Number: 11-77-X

Blood Type: O-Negative

She runs her fingers over the etched symbols. The Wings, the Cogs, and the Sword. She looks from the tags to the Prydwen, she grunts ripping the chain from her neck. Turning to the sea, she tosses the tags into the air watching them arc out of sight and splash into the sea.

She kneels and picks up her .44, popping the drum she counts the spent rounds, gives it a spin and slap it back into place with a flick of her wrist.

Roxanna turns her back to the massive airship and starts walking down the beach.


	2. Chapter 2

08/15/2280

Capitol Wasteland

Recon Squad Escher

Roxanna grips the Super Mutant by the throat in her armored hand, slamming it down into the ground with a thud. Gripping its head in her free hand, she violently snaps its neck as another mini-nuke goes off next to her.

The radiation counter in her helmet spikes wildly before dipping back to background. Pulling her shotgun from her back, she climbs to her feet and fires over Kent's helmeted head.

The Super Mutant crumples in the middle of swinging its weapon, a board with bloody nails driven through it.

Roxanna looks up at a crumbling building with a mostly intact rooftop, then kneels next to Winters gently prodding the bleeding wound in his side. Her external speakers click on with her microphone.

"Not much further, Winters." He nods, stooping lower she drops one of his arms around her armored shoulders and hauls him to his feet.

Signaling to Kent with her free hand as she hurries towards the building, her armored boots thudding in the loose gravel and debris.

Two fingers at her eyes, a quick hand wave over her head. Cover, on me.

A Super Mutant with a minigun opens up on them, dust and debris exploding from the ground. Bullets flit by her pockmarking the building as she hurries towards the entry way.

Getting through the doorway, she yanks a demolition pack from her belt and drops it against the door frame.

Winters cries out in pain as she manhandles him through the rubble strewn building, her green eyes quickly flicking from dark shadows to blind corners.

"Hang in there, come on- up the stairs." She tells Winters before stopping at the first landing, just in time to see Kent dash through the door way. Turning and hauling Winters back to his feet, she slaps the detonator clipped to her belt.

The building shakes as the doorway caves in with debris, and Kent jogs to a stop panting. He drops the clip from his assault rifle and slaps in a fresh one from the harness wrapped around his thigh.

"You were waiting for me right?" Kent asks, a wry smirk crossing his split lip.

"Of course." She replies, handing Winters to him pulling the shotgun from her back. Roxanna's headlamp blinks to life.

"Keep up, four floors to the roof." Roxanna adds, double timing it up the stairs towards the roof.

She was panting by the time she put her armored boot through the door to the roof, knocking the door clear off its hinges and sending it spinning through the air and crashing over the edge of the building.

"Trap that door behind us." She orders, pausing to look over the edge at the four Mutants trying to pry debris free from the door.

"We clear?" Kent asks, watching as Roxanna turns away from the edge casually tossing a mini-nuke over her shoulder. It drops out of sight followed by a loud rumble.

"Yep." She replies, Kent smiles as he flicks the taut tripwire to the bottlecap mine with practiced finesse.

"We're trapped." He adds, shouldering his assault rifle kneeling beside Winters.

Roxanna exhales a breath before pulling the canvas pack free from her armored shoulders and retrieves her beacon pulser. She thumbs the big, friendly red button, it emits a confirmation tone then quietly begins to drone out a steady beep.

The sun was just setting over the horizon when the beating thrum of Vertibird blades tears the silence. Roxanna sat with her back to the building's railing, hands on her power armored knees.

"You hear that?" Kent asks, breaking the wordless hours since they hit the beacon.

The six weeks spent pushing into the Commonwealth weren't pleasant, her squad was weary. Roxanna pushes herself to her feet, eyes focusing on the ever-growing dot on the horizon.

"Vertibird." Kent says, his shoulders sagging in relief that hung in the air. The dot slowly grew into a Tranport model Vertibird, its fuselage boldly emblazoned with the crest of the Brotherhood.

Roxanna ignites her signal flare and wedges it into a crevice of missing cement railing. The Vertibird circles slowly, the doors already open. A power armored soldier manned the minigun on the other opposite side.

The Vertibird slowly maneuvers toward the building and sets down, the armored figure removes his helmet.

Danse smiles.

"Welcome home, Knight."


End file.
